"We Have Tried to Safeguard Ourselves"
The Boy Scouts' Bankruptcy
Ninety years ago, in a message to the Boys Scouts of America, President Franklin Roosevelt, honorary president of the Scouts, noted, “The year 1935 marks the 25th birthday celebration of the Boy Scouts of America. During these years the value of our organization in building character and in training for citizenship has made itself a vital factor in the life of America. … There are in each community so many well-organized and efficiently administered agencies… which strengthen the best objectives of the home, the church, and the school.”
Several months later, a far less glowing message came from a relative of FDR, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, President Teddy Roosevelt’s son, chair of the Scout’s personnel division. Speaking extemporaneously at the 25th anniversary meeting of the Scouts National Council, Colonel Roosevelt referenced a Boy Scout “red flag list,” also known as “ineligible volunteer files” and “perversion files.”
The file consisted of almost 3,000 names. According to Colonel Roosevelt. “Through our twenty-five years of existence, we have tried to safeguard ourselves in every way from men unfit to lead or to influence boys, and we intend to continue to do so. Our ‘red flag list’ is in constant use.”
Some Council members were confused, thinking (mistakenly) Boy Scouts were tracking communists. At a press conference, organizational leaders explained that, indeed, the Scouts kept "red files" of child molesters and that thousands of abusers had been removed from the Boy Scouts in its first quarter century.
Boy Scouts of America – formally renamed Scouting America last February – is now 115 years old. While the organization might be thriving in some locations, nationally, boy scout numbers have plummeted from a peak of more than 4 million scouts in the 1970s to less than 1 million in 2024 (including almost 200,000 girls).
If you have heard or read about this durable organization in the last decade or so, it’s probably not about merit badges or a national jamboree, but rather about child abuse and assault. Five years ago, after a flurry of lawsuits against what was then Boy Scouts of America, the organization filed for bankruptcy, the largest child abuse bankruptcy in history, with approximately 82,000 claims.
I was never a scout, nor am I an attorney. But a friend Paula and I hosted recently is very knowledgeable about these issues. He’s a claimant in the bankruptcy for an assault he experienced as a Scout and is deeply invested in following and educating about the legal machinations of this complex bankruptcy. During our time together, we discussed what this insightful man knew, thought, or felt about the Scouts’ situation.
I explained to him my desire to assemble a three-column (or more), non-consecutive series, this being the first, over the summer, examining Scouting America’s past, present, and future. He agreed to serve as a primary source, collaborator, and essential fact checker (to the best of his knowledge). Also, to respond to questions that will inevitably surface while drafting these columns.
The purpose of this week’s column is to set the stage. Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were ardent scout supporters as was Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, a prominent citizen who went public about abuse within the organization. That took place 90 years ago. So, what happened – or maybe should have happened but didn’t – in the intervening years?
Brief foreshadowing from the Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2025: “The cost of compensating men who were sexually abused in the Boy Scouts of America has reached over $7 billion, double the amount forecast in the youth group’s bankruptcy plan. The figure doesn’t include tens of thousands of claims still needing to be reviewed, and a settlement fund established to compensate survivors is warning that they are unlikely to be paid in full, as was once envisioned. … In 2023, the settlement trust began valuing tens of thousands of abuse claims and trying to collect on insurance policies by suing insurers. The trust’s website says that, unless settlements are reached, the lawsuit against the roughly 90 insurers could take years to litigate.
I hope to make sense of this complicated situation in the coming months. Stay tuned.
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I’m pleased to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. These are my colleagues:
What a great idea for a story series. I look forward to reading them all.